Jan 16 Ice skating

Last week, the city of Turku announced that the neighborhood ice "fields" would be opening at last. The outdoor ice skating season here is, obviously, weather-dependent, and it has been such a warm December and January until now, hovering right around freezing. There are two outdoor ice skating tracks/fields in town that have been open for a couple of months now, since they use some kind of coolant to keep the ice frozen even if the temperature pops up above zero. But for the school soccer fields that the city levels out and ices over, they have to wait until temperatures will be reliably frigid.

Oh, have I ever mentioned that they ice over the school soccer fields here for ice skating? Because they do, and it is so enchanting. All of a sudden, you, yes YOU, have an ice rink in your neighborhood, just like that. The kids go ice skating for PE during school, and even päiväkotis have little "field trips" to go skating. Have you ever seen a four-year-old ice skate? It's amazing. Sterling is going with his päiväkoti on Wednesday and I am so excited for him. We've practiced a few times at the field by our house and he gets better every time.

When we were there on Saturday night, the city water truck came and put on another layer of ice. The truck seems to come almost every night to resurface the field, which is good - so many kids skate and play hockey on the field that it gets a bit rough by the end of the day.

So this winter, I am reminded that one of my favorite things about living in Finland is having my kids say to me, "Mom, see you later, I'm going ice skating" and then they walk down the street to the frozen soccer field.